ValleyWatch

Plants like TVA's Paradise Fossil plant in Muhlenberg County, KY are among the dirtiest in the nation even though they have raised concern with the USEPA for decades. Photo © 2009 John Blair

January 24, 2012-By Amy Westervelt in Forbes Magazine

Make no mistake: Kentucky is a coal state. Legislators have lined up time and again in support of the industry. The state’s governor famously told the EPA last year to “get off our backs” about the environmental impacts of coal.

But a report released this morning indicates that the winds of change may be blowing. The Health Impact Assessment on Coal and Clean Energy Options in Kentucky, prepared by the Kentucky Environmental Foundation collates all the available peer-reviewed reports on the health impacts of both coal production and various types of renewable energy production, in an attempt to encourage legislators who have historically ignored the environmental impact of coal to take a look at the health impacts associated with various energy production decisions.

The use of a Health Impact Assessment (HIA) is somewhat novel–the idea has been taken from Europe and applied with some success in the United States, in so far as it provides a human health-focused version of the environmental impact assessments now required for most major building and development projects. But most of the information contained within this particular assessment has been available to legislators for some time and not swayed them to take a second look at coal and renewables.

What might encourage that shift, however, is the fact that the economic realities of coal for those living in a coal state have shifted. Kentucky currently has one of the most expensive healthcare systems in the country, a fact attributed largely to the state’s polluted air and water. Still, many average Kentuckyians, especially those in the eastern part of the state, where coal has reigned king for decades, have not been swayed by mounting healthcare costs. More important has been the recent spike in utility bills.

Last year was a turning point,” says State Representative Mary Lou Marzian, who recently introduced the Clean Energy Opportunity Act to the state legislature. “Utility bills, even with coal as our main resource, skyrocketed, in eastern Kentucky in particular. Legislators were getting calls from constituents with bills that were three and four times as high.” Continue reading →

January 20, 2012-by Sue Sturgis in Facing South

Environmental and public-health groups plan to sue the Environmental Protection Agency to force the release of long-awaited federal standards for disposal of coal ash.

A literal "mountain" of coal ash sits along the Green river just south of the Big Rivers/Henderson Municipal coal plant near Sebree, KY. g 2010 John Blair

On Jan. 18, the nonprofit environmental law firm Earthjustice sent the EPA and Department of Justice a notice of intent to sue on behalf of a coalition of environmental and public-health groups under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. The federal law requires EPA to ensure safeguards are regularly updated to address potential environmental hazards from waste disposal, but the agency has failed to take such action on coal ash.

The waste left over after burning coal for electricity, coal ash contains highly toxic elements including arsenic, lead, hexavalent chromium and mercury. It’s been linked to 150 environmental damage cases in 36 states nationwide, most of them involving water pollution from leaking storage sites.

“It is long past time to stop this threat to our drinking water,” said Earthjustice attorney Lisa Evans.

Following the December 2008 collapse of a massive coal ash holding pond at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston power plant in eastern Tennessee (in photo), EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson promised that her agency would release federal coal ash regulations by the end of 2009. In May 2010, EPA proposed two options for regulating coal ash — one that would classify it as hazardous waste and impose strict federal regulations, and another that would treat it as non-hazardous waste and leave enforcement of national standards largely up to the states.

The agency held eight public hearings on the proposal and received more than 450,000 public comments. But it decided to delay issuing a final rule after coming under intense political pressure from the coal and electric-power industries.

Since then, members of Congress have sought to block the agency from regulating coal ash as hazardous waste. In October 2011, the U.S. House passed such a bill sponsored by Rep. David McKinley (R-W.Va.), and a similar measure is under consideration in the Senate. Continue reading →

January 8, 2012-by Heather Gillers in the Indianapolis Star

The massive Bear Run MIne, operated by Peabody Energy is "the largest strip mine east of the Mississippi River," according to Peabody. Sadly for Hoosiers, it operates on a permit that is considerably more lax than required in other states with large mining operations. Photo© 2010 John Blair

Beginning this year, the Bear Run Mine in southwestern Indiana is expected to produce 8 million to 12 million tons of coal annually and will become the largest coal mine in the eastern United States.

The mine also is a key piece in Gov. Mitch Daniels’ strategy to make coal a viable industry in Indiana.

But Bear Run stands out for another reason.

Because of a decision made by the state, Bear Run will be among the least regulated coal mines in the nation, saving its owner perhaps millions of dollars while raising the potential for putting Hoosiers and aquatic life at risk.

Indiana’s handling of Bear Run’s water pollution permit has been harshly criticized by environmentalists and federal regulators who fear the lower level of regulation could lead to harmful pollutants entering the state’s waterways.

It also goes against what’s required by other states. There are 27 coal mines in the U.S. that produce at least 5.85 million tons of coal a year, and the states in which they are located — including Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio — require them all to follow stronger requirements to test for and clean up pollutants.

But not Bear Run.

Huge mining machines called draglines are used to scoop up more than 150 cubic yards of earth with each pass. Strip mining is one of the most destructive things that man has done to the earth. Photo © 2010 John Blair.

“You’re behind the times in Indiana,” said Deputy Director Lewis Halstead of the Division of Mining and Reclamation at West Virginia’s Department of Environmental Protection.

At issue is whether the state should have required Bear Run to obtain an individual permit. To do that, Bear Run would have first had to thoroughly study the mine’s wastewater to determine what toxins are present and perform a stringent analysis of nearby waterways.

Based on that information, the state would have crafted a permit that set limits on how much water pollution the mine could release and required its owner to test regularly for specific toxins identified by state regulators.

An individual permit assumes each mine has its own set of potential pollution issues that should be addressed.

The 27 largest mines in the U.S. are required to have such a permit. Bear Run is not. Instead, Indiana regulators only require the mine to follow the rules of a one-size-fits-all general permit — the same one that regulates the state’s smallest mine.

Thomas Easterly, Daniels’ appointed commissioner of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, said he thinks the protections are sufficient.

“If it meets the requirements” of a general permit, Easterly told The Indianapolis Star, “then the environment’s protected.” Continue reading →

January 4, 2012-Excerpted from the National Wildlife Federation

10. The Dirty Water Act

Yes, 2011 will be remembered as the year Congress decided America’s water was just too darn clean, attacking the Clean Water Act and investment in clean water programs. The Dirty Water Act passed the House and now Senators Dean Heller (R-NV) and John Barasso (R-WY) have been working to sneak it through the Senate by trying to attach it as a political rider to must-pass budget legislation. Get Smart: Tell Congress to protect river otters’ streams from pollution.

9. Banning Imaginary Regulations

The Environmental Protection Agency has no plans to regulate farm dust, but that didn’t stop a bipartisan majority in the House from passing the Farm Dust Regulation Prevention Act. “Since I am sure that many little girls all over America care about this deeply, can you commit to me that EPA will never try to regulate fairy dust?” Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) jokingly asked EPA assistant administrator Gina McCarthy. The Senate has no plans to take up the bill and President Obama has promised to veto it. Get Smart: Learn what pollutants are real threats to America’s wildlife and public health.

8. Lunch Special: Meat Loaf with Styrene Oligomers

When she served as House Speaker, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) led an effort to green the Capitol that cut energy use 23%, water use 32% and used some of the savings to convert Congressional cafeterias to composting.  But when Republicans took charge of the House in 2011, they eliminated the composting program, diverted cafeteria waste back to a landfill, and brought back petroleum-based Styrofoam that can leech toxic styrene oligomers into the food it holds, increasing thyroid hormone levels. Get Smart: Use your own reusable container.

 7. Politics Superseding Wildlife Biology

Just two of many examples: The U.S. Forest Service had closed much of Idaho’s Payette National Forest to domestic sheep grazing where conflicts with bighorns exist, hoping to protect bighorns from disease, but the budget bill that cleared Congress in December included a political rider reversing that decision. And the House GOP budget (H.R. 1) included language aimed at blocking implementation of two biological opinions intended to ensure the recovery of threatened and endangered salmon, steelhead, green sturgeon, and other species in the San Francisco Bay-Delta ecosystem. Get Smart: Support wildlife protections through NWF’s Choose Your Cause. Continue reading →

December 31, 2011-New York Times Editorial

This shovel removes 175 cubic yards of earth with each scoop. Notice the minuscule size of the man walking toward it. Photo © 1999 John Blair

It is a national disgrace that the strongest supporters of tougher mine safety concede that it will likely take another disaster before lawmakers will be willing to buck Big Coal and pass desperately needed safety legislation. “This is out of mind until another explosion takes place,” Representative George Miller, a California Democrat and sponsor of reform legislation, grimly predicted.

Republicans in both houses have led the way in stymieing worthy bills that address the many dangers and regulatory failings laid bare in the Upper Big Branch explosion that killed 29 miners in April 2010. Chief among them is the need for stronger fines for operators that violate safety rules or block safety monitoring — and a clear path for federal regulators to close the mines of serial offenders. Investigators need subpoena power. And whistle-blowers need protections against company intimidation.

These factors were cited in the West Virginia disaster in which federal investigatorsconcluded that the mine owner at the time, Massey Energy, was “systematic, intentional and aggressive” in putting miners’ lives at risk in a “workplace culture that valued productivity over safety.”

Two other inquiries offered a similar conclusion. Democrats, beginning with President Obama, need to do more to drive this issue before the public. Right now, the Miller bill and a similar measure from Senator John Rockefeller IV, a Democrat of West Virginia, are moribund in the face of industry and Republican gamesmanship.

Lawmakers worried about the next election have no excuse for ducking their responsibility to protect American lives. Voters, everywhere, should make them pay.

December 21, 2011-Valley Watch press release issued today.

For Immediate Release     Contact John Blair @ 812-464-5663

Valley Watch, the Evansville based environmental health organization whose purpose is to “protect the public health and environment of the lower Ohio River Valley,” is delighted with the fact that after twenty-one years, the US EPA is finally mandating rules to significantly reduce the levels of toxic emissions from coal fired power plants.“Since we reside in the very center of the largest concentration of coal fired electricity in North America, if not the world, EPA’s rule today should go a very long way toward improving the health and lives of thousands of tri-state residents, who for too many years, have been forced to breathe in toxic pollution from those coal plants,” asserted John Blair, president of the organization that has achieved a reputation for fighting new coal plants across the Ohio Valley.

Blair went on, “During some years, these plants have polluted the region’s air with more than 60 million pounds of health impacting toxic pollution, causing severe health problems for area residents while most of the electricity produced around here is sold to areas far removed from toxic mess we have in this region. Hopefully, within a decade, tri-state citizens should begin to see a robust and steady improvement in their overall health as this rule is implemented and the level of toxins is significantly reduced.”

Valley Watch has worked for years to persuade the EPA to adopt the rule which was first required when the Clean Air Act was amended in 1990. And of course, Valley Watch was the only regional organization that we are aware of that filed supportive comments and attended the public field hearing held in Chicago last May to speak on behalf of the proposed rule.

Over the years Valley Watch has been criticized by local industrial interests as being “radical and uncompromising” in our efforts to improve the quality of life in the tri-state region. “We make no apologies for the efforts we have made to improve people’s quality of life and health. Our all volunteer staff is amply rewarded for those efforts when we achieve real progress like this rule mandates,” says Blair. He went on, “Of course, controlling this pollution will also create hundreds, if not thousands of new construction jobs in the region which should also help in these trying times.”

More information on the rule can be found at:   http://www.epa.gov/mats/actions.html

December 31, 2011- by John Blair, valley watch.net editor

Coal protest have now gone global as more than 30,000 people in China tools to the streets on one coal plant city to protest against the plant and its pollution.

Indictments issued against former IURC chair for official misconduct

December 16, 2011-by Steven Higgs in the Bloomington Alternative

While citizen advocates hail indictments charging Gov. Mitch Daniels’s chief utility regulator with official misconduct, they say David Lott Hardy is but a symbol of rampant corruption during the outgoing governor’s two terms. A Marion County grand jury on Dec. 12, 2012, indicted the former chair of the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC) on three felony counts in cases concerning Duke Energy Corp.

“Although assaults on democracy are bipartisan and in Indiana date back to the Bayh administration, Mitch Daniels has taken crony capitalism to new heights,” ValleyWatch’s John Blair said in a statement issued to The Bloomington Alternative. “It seems there is nothing he won’t do to enrich his corporate friends at the expense of taxpayers and ratepayers. And although he must share the blame with his appointed IURC, which is still inherently corrupt, it is clear the problem here runs to the top of the Daniels administration.”

Citizens Action Coalition (CAC) Executive Director Kerwin Olsen said the Hardy affair further taints Duke’s integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC), “clean coal” power plant under construction at Edwardsport in Knox County.

“These indictments show a direct link between the IGCC project and the improper communications,” he wrote in a statement. “This fact raises further questions about the legitimacy of the Edwardsport IGCC project, the behavior of others who may have been involved, and more importantly, the money that Duke Energy Indiana ratepayers have been forced to pay for this fiasco to date.”

The Indianapolis Star detailed the indictments in a Dec. 12 story, noting that Daniels fired Hardy in October 2010 after Duke hired IURC general counsel Scott Storms as its regulatory attorney. Continue reading →